A convicted New York City con artist’s “Return-A-Pet” scam has come back to bite him. Eric Stein, 53, of Manhattan, faces charges of mail and wire fraud in connection with the scam that made him at least $500,000 richer, the New York Daily News reports. Stein allegedly sold investors on his “Return-A-Pet” business, which Stein – using a fake name – said would reunite heartbroken pet owners with their lost animal companions....
Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Interval Licensing, LLC sued AOL, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo! and YouTube today, alleging infringement of patents covering technology basic to e-commerce and search companies. The patents allegedly infringed include: One covering an “Attention Manager for Occupying the Peripheral Attention of a Person in the Vicinity of a Display Device” (6,263,507); Two regarding a “Browser for Use in Navigating a Body of Information, With Particular Application to Browsing Information Represented By Audiovisual Data”(6,034,652 and 6,788,314); and One for an “Attention Manager for Occupying the Peripheral Attention of a Person in the Vicinity of a Display Device”(6,757,682)....
The mail service may be scrutinizing your packages a little more closely after a poison letter sent to Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi tested positive for the toxin ricin yesterday. Sen. Wicker and his staff have not taken leave due to this threat, as the letter was intercepted at an off-site mail screening facility. Although no suspect has yet been named in this attempt to poison by mail, the perpetrator may answer to the following federal crimes when apprehended....
Simplicity cribs have been recalled, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. On April 29, the CPSC announced the recall of all Simplicity full-size cribs with tubular metal mattress-support frames. This crib recall includes both fixed-side and drop-side cribs. The Simplicity cribs pose a risk of serious injury or death due to entrapment, strangulation, suffocation and fall hazards to infants and toddlers. The crib’s tubular metal mattress-support frame can bend or detach and cause part of the mattress to collapse, creating a space into which an infant or toddler can roll and become wedged, entrapped or fall out of the crib....
Terminally ill patients in New Mexico have the constitutional right to obtain “aid in dying,” allowing a fatal dose of drugs to be administered to end their lives and suffering, a state court has affirmed. This ruling could make New Mexico the fifth state in the nation to allow doctors to provide lethal doses to long-suffering patients, and may protect doctors from prosecution, reports The New York Times. Will this decision open the door to a constitutional right to assisted suicide?...
Anytime you’re cited for driving under the influence, you face potentially stiff criminal penalties as well as restrictions on your ability to drive. A DUI offense is generally a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine and potentially imprisonment in county jail for up to one year – but typically less. However, under some circumstances, a DUI may be charged as a felony, punishable in some cases by lengthy prison sentences. What can potentially make a DUI a felony?...
Even if you live in a state that legalized marijuana for recreational use, and even if you have a prescription for medical marijuana, and even if you were never high on the job and only used marijuana in your personal time, you can still get fired for using marijuana. And if Comcast is allowed to fire a quadriplegic telephone operator in Colorado who used medical marijuana on his own time to treat violent muscle spasms, those with careers in education and public service are understandably a bit nervous about getting their own prescriptions or marijuana cards....
The company behind a Wyoming wind farm pleaded guilty to killing more than a dozen eagles and other birds with the farm’s wind turbines, agreeing to pay $1 million in fines. Duke Energy plead guilty to killing more than 160 birds, including 14 golden eagles from 2009 to 2013 at two wind farms in Wyoming, reports the Los Angeles Times. This plea marks the first successful criminal conviction for a wind farm under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act....
With rapper Young Buck’s eviction from his Tennessee mansion, the “Straight Outta Cashville” artist appears to be one step closer to emerging straight outta bankruptcy. Young Buck, 31, whose real name is David Darnell Brown, was apparently ordered to move out of his 5,000-square-foot mansion by May 16, gossip website TMZ reports. Buck was seen carrying boxes out of the home last week, sources told the website. The eviction follows a bankruptcy judge’s order that Young Buck’s home be sold to pay off Buck’s debt for unpaid taxes, according to TMZ....
Your phone now contains more information than ever before, more even than your home, and the courts recognize this. You do have a significant privacy interest in your phone and you can challenge a search of your tech just as you would a search of your car. Two years ago, the Supreme Court acknowledged the significant role of technology in our lives in Riley v. California. A recent case out of the Eastern District of Virginia, US v....
Widely used social media sites offer scammers and spammers powerful new tools to spam you, maybe steal your identity, or perhaps do something more malicious. With new routes for them to find you, along with veritable goldmines of data within social media networks, some good old advice 2.0 can help you protect yourself from annoyance, identity theft, fraud or worse. Keep it to yourself. Don’t give out personally identifying information. This applies to social networks which you think only include friends, just like it does to unsolicited emails....
Social-media fueled “flash mobs” at first started off rather harmlessly. Except now, “flash mobs” are starting to live up to their “mob” moniker, which begs the question - are flash mobs illegal? Or, are flash mobs a First Amendment issue that is constitutionally protected? Los Angeles has felt the sting of the flash mob. Earlier in the week, DJ Kaskade tweeted to his 92,000 Twitter followers that he was going to have a “block party....
It happens to the best of them. Racy photos, sex tapes and scandals. Celebrities’ sex tapes and racy personal pictures going public often garner more press than any movie or hit song. It just goes with the territory. The most recent celebrity to find her image go viral: Christina Aguilera. Thought to be the work of a hacker (or perhaps her estranged husband), the Christina Aguilera racy photos are all over the internet and she is none too happy about it....
Facebook is a great tool for keeping in touch with old friends. But as some criminals have shown, Facebook is also a great tool for witness intimidation. In some circles, there is no greater insult than being called a “rat” or a “snitch.” So if you cooperate with police, you could potentially put your own safety in danger – as people you know on Facebook may be quick to point out....
With only two episodes left in season 4, “The Good Wife” turned its focus on a hot-button issue: digital activism. What some viewers may not realize is that this episode is almost entirely based on a recent rape case in Ohio involving a football team, an underage girl, Anonymous, and political corruption. In this episode, the firm takes on a young client named Rainey. She brings a civil suit against Todd, a student who raped her but avoided prison in a plea bargain....
One of the most feared phone calls or pieces of mail an American can get is one from the IRS. A call center in India has recently been taking advantage of this fear by posing as the IRS in order to scam unsuspecting U.S. citizens. Believe it or not, countless people fell for this scam. The call center was boasting income of over $150,000 per day. Each scammer would demand as much as they thought they could get away with, sometimes $500, often in the thousands, and in one case $60,000....
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released crash test results for eight large cars. The tests were meant to simulate side impact with a sport utility vehicle or small truck. According to the IIHS, side impact crashes are the second most common fatal crash type (after frontal crashes). Of the eight vehicles tested, the Toyota Avalon and Chevrolet Impala earned the best ratings. Both vehicles come equipped with standard side airbags....
Judge Judy rules as America’s highest-paid TV star, and Judge Joe Brown also makes the list, according to TV Guide’s annual survey of TV personalities’ salaries. Judge Judith Sheindlin tops the salary docket by making $45 million a year, TV Guide reports. That makes Sheindlin higher-paid than even “American Idol’s” Mariah Carey ($17 million per season), “Two and a Half Men’s” Ashton Kutcher ($700,000 per episode, or about $18 million per season), NBC “Today’s” Matt Lauer ($21....
Just like we predicted, Mars heiress Jacqueline Badger Mars, 74, will be facing light penalties for the fatal crash she caused that killed an 86-year-old woman and caused a pregnant passenger’s miscarriage. A Virginia judge ordered Mars, one of the world’s richest women, to pay a $2,500 fine and suspended her driver’s license for six months. How did the candy heiress get such a sweet sentence? General District Judge Deborah Welsh, who called the crash “horrible,” could have sentenced Mars to up to a year in jail on the misdemeanor charge, reports the Associated Press....
Back in October, Nike, which owns Converse, sued 31 companies for manufacturing knock-off versions of those famous “Chuck Taylor” Converse All-Star shoes. You’re seen them before: the canvas high-tops with the big star on the ankle. You’ve also probably seen the knock-offs, which come dangerously close to looking just like Converse’s Chuck Taylors. Well, yesterday, at least one company – Ralph Lauren – settled its dispute with Nike. Just 30 more to go!...
